There was a surgeon here the beginning of November who performed mostly cleft lip repairs. Each mother is holding their own babies. I am holding one of their twins. The baby I am holding did not have surgery. One can imagine the noise on the ward with all the babies and than an extra twin to add. The beautiful thing when the babies are operated on they will never remember what it was like to have a cleft lip.

This is me with the babies who had their cleft lips repaired.

Oh! Another shot of the cabin mates.

Vicky (England), Rachel (Australia), Hettie (Canada) cabin mates posing on the gang way of the ship.

"The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic " Psalm 29:2-4. The sound of the falls really was thundering.

Stephanie, Jennifer and I went to the Wli falls. It was a magnificant sight. A incredible climb! I was sore for days.

"Wli Falls is billed as the 'largest waterfall in West Africa', Wli Falls - which actually consists of a highly accessible lower fall and more difficult to reach upper fall (Ghana Guide 267)."

True African style bringing home their rabbits in boxes carried on their heads.

The following week after we had seen each rabbit house was built we delivered the rabbits.

After the snails were delivered. The following week we visited the women at their homes to see that their rabbit houses where built. Again we were pleasantly surprised at how well they had each built their rabbit house.

"Snail farming like any other type of animal farming is the rearing of snails either breeding or fattening for man's use and enjoyment. Snail farming can also be considered as another source of income generation. In Ghana, snail meat forms an important part in the diet of many Ghanains.
Nutrition value of snails:
Protein 12-16% Iron 45-50% Fat 0.05-0.8% water 80%. It contains almost all the amino acids needed by humans.

Once we had seen each woman had built their snail house the following week we brought the snails. It was a fun week. The women were happy.

After the women recieved the supplies to build the snail houses we went the following week to see if their snail houses were built. It was encouraging to see that they had built the snail houses and done an excellent job.

The project is designed to help the women to generate income. Each woman in the group was presented with the option to raise snails or rabbits. They than each recieved two days of training from an agriculturalist. Mercy ships than provided each woman in the group the material to build a rabbit or snail house. In this picture the woman are recieving the material and tools to build the houses.

These are the women in the rabbit and snail project recieving the materials to build the rabbit and snail houses. The rabbit and snail project is a community development project designed to help the women start their own businesses and generate income for their famalies.

Jo and Hettie at lunch. We are very conditioned here on the ship meals are the same time each day! We have pancakes every Wednesday morning, desert every Tuesday night, eggs every Sunday morning...........
Jo and the Maggi! For all the Dutch people.
Salads that are at each meal. 

Some daily life pictures.
Shopping at the market with the girls. A little different than home instead of malls and clothing. Fruit stands with mangos! One of our favorite fruits. 

This is the 45-bed hospital ward where I do most of my work and spend much of my time. On a whole there are an array of crayon coloured pictures, balloons and laughter on the ward. The ward is where more than just physical healing takes place on a daily basis. It is a safe place where no one teases or ridicules, a place where patients feel safe to uncover their faces. Truly wonderful, heart warming place to be and work. 

I watched Dr. Parker close up on a mandibelectomy and saw a complete cleft lip repair. "Cleft-lip and or palate is the second most common birth defect in the world. Cleft-lip babies often suffer from malnourishment because they cannot suck or nurse properly."  

I was able to watch a couple of surgeries this past week. The heart of the ship. I could watch Dr. Parker who for the last 18 years has served with Mercy Ships. How he physically performs the surgeries but also spiritually prays for each patient. 

The children singing at the school. "Wash, wash, wash our hands everyone praise the Lord. Jesus wash, wash, wash our hearts everyone praise the Lord." 

We went out to a village to teach the children Bible stories and hygiene. These are some of the happy children cleaning up under what they call the "Tree of Life." 

Canadian Thanksgiving!
Give Thanks to the Lord for He is good.
We did not have turkey or ham but we did have delicious pumkin pie. 

http://hettieh.blogspot.com/

This is a small idea as to what our cabin looks like. There are four bunks in the room The bottom one in this picture is mine. We now have a new cabin mate from Switerland.  

This is a crowd of the villagers watching the bee movie. The purpose of our trip was to introduce this village to bee keeping. To show a movie on bees to hopefully eliminate the village's fear of having bees. This was the first visit to this village.
"That's how it's done across Africa. You attract wild bees. So we've baited 104 hives. The bees are swarming between now and September, looking for a new places to live. We're asking people to join us in praying for just over 5 million bees to come and live in our hives." Exciting eh! This is sunset shot. I do not have any pictures of myself out with the bees. Although I thought it would be interesting for you guys at home to know what I am doing. The program coordinator said " We didn't tell the women they would be receiving free beehives and tools until the last day of training. We thought they already knew but they didn't. So when they found out they spontaneously burst into song. They were singing praises to God for about 20 minutes. It was wonderful." Africa is so different and in many ways refreshing. Can you imagine getting good news about something in your life and just start out in song?

This is a village road. We headed out to the village for the bee project. It was really interesting and nice to be out in the village. The Mercy Ships Community Development Services has started the bee project as one of the micro-enterprise initiative for women. They select poor women who would benefit immediately from a new source of income. It is an exciting project and seems to be succesful thus far. The women they train are to in turn to train other women ensuring the initiative will continue after Mercy Ships departs. Also an interesting to know for us Cornerstone supporters. Two prison officials were also trained and will teach the skill to female inmates, providing them with a source of income upon release. 

The lonely planet book goes on to describe ' as you bounce along it's hard to concentrate on anything except how flimsy the ropes seem and what a vast distance it is from the forest floor.'
I enjoyed the day immensly! It was great fun.

'It consists of seven viewing plantforms linked by circuit of narrow suspension bridges, along which you sway, 30 m above the forest floor. It gives a bird's eye view of the forest.'
Psalm 148:1
' Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the HEIGHTS above. Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.'

Kakum National Park 'the highlight is its canopy walkway which is unique in Africa and one of only four in the world.'

Cape Coast is the heart of a fishing town overlooking the Atlanic Ocean.

Sheep at the ocean! The sheep and goats are everywhere.
It is difficult to tell the difference between goats and sheep here. One person made the observation that the difficulty telling the difference between the sheep and goats put the passage from Matthew 25:33 in perspective 'He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.'

'I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.' Psalm 9:1

This picture of the Atlantic Ocean is for my dear friend Jen!
'O Lord, our Lord how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. ' Psalm 8:1